The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee
Hong Kong. Most of us, in 2019, think of a hustling, bustling city made up of gleaming high rises and techno-firms, and populated exclusively by high-powered, high octane business people. Of course, there was a major transition in 1997 when the British Crown colony reverted to Chinese rule, but much earlier than that—at the start of the 1940s—another, perhaps more significant, upheaval took place: World War II. Janice Y.K. Lee has set her first novel in the Hong Kong of that era and just after, and she has absolutely nailed it. Having spent most of her life in Hong Kong, we would expect nothing less.
New York Times bestseller The Piano Teacher (2009) introduces us to that heady time in Hong Kong, when the British ruled the roost, living in uneasy coexistence with the Chinese population, as well as the other foreign residents and ex-pats, but Lee approaches that era somewhat obliquely. Part 1, Chapter 1 is set in 1953 Hong Kong, on the eve of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. The titular piano teacher, Claire Pendleton, has recently arrived from England with her engineer husband, Martin, who has been assigned to work on a reservoir. It had not been a pleasant journey for the naïve Claire, and she is ill- prepared for what awaits her. “The English government did so much for the colonies, Claire knew. They made the locals’ lives much better, but they rarely appreciated it. Her mother had warned her about the Chinese before she left— an unscrupulous, conniving people who would surely try to take advantage and goodwill.” It becomes very clear very
quickly that the heat and humidity that greet her are probably the easiest aspects of her new life to adapt to. Strange foods and even stranger customs assail her at every turn. “They had arrived to a big party on the dock, with paper streamers and loud, shouting vendors selling fresh fruit juice and soy milk drinks and garish flower arrangements to the people waiting. Groups of revelers had already broken out the champagne and were toasting the arrival of their friends and family.”
Martin’s job takes him away frequently, and Claire eventually finds work as a piano teacher for a well-to-do Chinese family, Victor and Melody Chen and their daughter Locket. She has discovered that, contrary to expectations, she enjoys the “loud, crowded and dirty” city, but is encouraged to live in the style of most British nationals in the Colony and enjoy the life of leisure, flitting from party to party, and relying on the “amahs” and other servants to take care of all their needs. When she meets the Chen family’s chauffeur, Will Truesdale, her life takes an abrupt turn, as does the narrative. The reader is cast back into 1941 Hong Kong, and we meet the Will of that time, a newcomer to the island who works for an oil company, and has just met the woman who turns out to be the love of his life, Trudy Liang. “She is famous, born of a well-known couple, the mother a Portuguese beauty, the father a Shanghai millionaire…” Trudy is a slender, dark-haired live wire, a young and beautiful Eurasian, as smart as she is flighty; she is the toast of the town, a woman who can say and do whatever she pleases. Will is instantly beguiled. Clearly, the approaching war is the last thing on Trudy’s mind, but approach it does, and Hong Kong is quickly plunged into chaos and brutality. The city has become a living hell, and it only gets worse when all foreigners are forced into internment camps, first in a hotel and then an actual camp near the ocean. Although Will goes and Trudy is exempted, they are both called on to make unthinkable sacrifices. Needless to say, the Japanese do not fare well in this book.
Lee moves the action back and forth with ease between the start of the war in the 40s and the post-war era, and between the two love stories. Secrets are slowly revealed that tie the two time frames and the main characters together. A highlight of the story is Lee’s horrifying depiction of life in wartime Hong Kong both inside and outside the internment centre. “A young woman, Mary Cox, says her husband was grabbed by Japanese soldiers and made to clean up after bodies had been dragged along the street, shedding body parts like animals. He came home soaked in blood and bits of decaying flesh and wept before falling on the sofa, exhausted. He was gone, the next morning. She hadn’t seen him since.”
There are several themes touched on in this book: how war can bring out the best and worst in us; the impact of betrayal and the ensuing guilt; and what we will— and won’t—do for love. Lee’s book is populated by fascinating characters, including one Canadian and several upper class British twits who never fail to do or say the utterly wrong thing, but the star of the novel is Hong Kong itself. It is a compelling and sumptuous read, truly a page-turner. Lee’s second book, The Expatriates (2016), is also set in Hong Kong and centres on three young American women living in a small ex-pat community. If it is as well-tuned (and as well received) as The Piano Teacher, it too will be justifiably deemed “immensely readable”.
The Piano Teacher will soon be available at the Lennoxville Library.